Discovering the "7 Saharas"  : Édouard Le Floch and his exceptional lecture at the OSS

The Sahara and Sahel Observatory had the honor of welcoming, on May 13, 2025, Édouard Le Floch, geographer and independent researcher, for a remarkable lecture on his theory of the "7 Saharas." He shared with the OSS experts an original and highly documented interpretation of the Saharan space that he describes as a set of seven distinct ecological, historical, and human entities rather than a uniform desert.

This meeting was marked by the presence of Amina Daoud-Bouattour, Zeineb Ghrabi-Gammar, and Imtinen Ben Haj Jilani, three renowned Tunisian botanists, who presented the book recently published by CPU Tunisie editions: Flore de Tunisie. This book is the result of several years of a hard-scientific work and represents a major milestone in the understanding and preservation of Tunisian plant heritage. Its presentation provided an opportunity to highlight the importance of a regional and transdisciplinary approach to better understand environmental dynamics in the Sahara and beyond.

Édouard Le Floch supported his lecture by maps, photos, and field testimonies that generated keen interest among the OSS experts, particularly in relation to resilience, adaptation to climate change, and natural resource governance in arid and semi-arid zones.
This scientific and human encounter strengthened synergies between researchers, practitioners, and institutions, with a view to opening up to ancient and contemporary knowledge of the Sahara.

The OSS welcomes this initiative, which contributes to strategic and operational thinking around sustainability in the Sahel-Saharan regions, and expresses its heartfelt appreciation to Mr. Le Floch and the speakers for their valuable contributions.